Squeezer

About

I wrote this compressor to learn all I could about audio compression.
It took me several months to gather all the specs and papers I needed
and convert them into code.

Squeezer is different from all the compressors I know: its knobs
are stepped to fine-tuned preset values, but can be changed to
continuous values by clicking a small orange light located next to
them. This allows you to find nice settings fast while not preventing
optimisation of settings.

Squeezer adapts easily to many tastes and use cases:

feed-forward & feed-back design

linear, logarithmic & smooth release stage

optical & FET detectors

peak & RMS sensing

hard, medium & soft knee

flexible side-chain & parallel compression

Squeezer has given me a deep insight into compression. But above
that, it has quickly become my go-to generic compressor!

I hope that you have as much fun with this compressor as I had when I
coded it!

FAQ

Squeezer crashes when the plug-in is loaded/opened

Squeezer comes with a folder called squeezer. This folder must
be located in the same folder as the plug-in, so please copy it
along and try again!

Some hosts (FL Studio, Bitwig) do not assign VST2 channels correctly

As an example, a stereo plug-in might only output a mono signal.

VST2 does not support side-chains. I have found a way around this
limitation, but unfortunately some hosts will behave erratically.

VST3 supports side-chains, so if your DAW supports it, use the VST3
plug-ins instead. As an alternative, I have created VST2 plug-ins
without external side-chain inputs. They are distinguished by the
words no side-chain in their name and should fix channel-assignment
problems.

Documentation

For documentation and further information, please see the manual
and the directory doc.

Bug reports

License

Please note, however, that the VST2 SDK is not free. I provide a
VST2 plug-in because it is a de facto standard that makes life
easier for musicians and engineers who just want to make some great
sounding albums.

But if you are a free software advocate, you might not want to use the
VST2 plug-in. The pre-built GNU/Linux stand-alone and VST3 plug-ins
really are free software in the sense of the Free Software
Foundation.